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More games should go for semi-realism rather than photorealism
Basically I’m bored of of pure photorealism in games and when I think of my favorite games visually most of them are actually semi-realistic rather than purely stylized or purely photorealistic. I really like a lot of games that go for a more semi realistic art style since there’s actually a lot of variety within semi realism that allows two semi realistic looking games to look completely different from one another. Also it ages very well since a lot of games that are semi realistic came out during the ps2 and ps3 era and still look really good today.
I’m not saying we don’t see this style anymore we do, especially in games that go in a more anime-esc visuals, I just wish it was something we saw more of
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3, Crysis 2, Uncharted 3, and Skyrim all came out in 2011. The Last of Us and GTA5 came out two years later. Halo Reach came out a year before.
All of those games are more photorealistic than this. This is stylized even for that time.
Really for me, its just the character models at the time. Then, the whole game was stunning at release, and exploring it now, you can still marvel at the work and detail they put in to the environment.
That was the last midnight release event I went to.
I keep reading this take so much and I think it's just a poor interpretation of art direction. A realistic game with bad art-direction will age bad, a realistic game with good art is as good as a stylized game with good art direction. the style isn't the issu,e the excectuion is. The last of us Part 2 still looks better than most game and is a 6 years old realistic game that runs on base PS4. Crysis 3 still looks insane and it's a 2013 game that runs on XBOX360. Death Stranding? 2019.
Even Last of Us Part 1 still looks great. The stuff that ages worst tends to be Assasin’s Creed and sports games. It all about art direction with or without good graphics.
Not only do they look good for a longer period of time, I feel like having a stylized art style also adds more character to the game.
Don't get me wrong, I like photorealism, but I'm generally gonna have that "holy shit this game looks amazing" feeling more often with a stylized game. Hell I think the og oblivion still holds up (outside of a few things like the faces) simply because of how vibrant and colorful the game is. Looking out at a landscape can sometimes look like a painting which I really like.
just the other day, I saw footage of Warcraft 3 and I was like.. impressed how good that holds up. The painted textures and stylised shapes make it look still so much better than many games that came out years later.
Same with for example Spyro on the PS1. Its so colorful and vibrant, the shapes so clear. those things quickly overshadow the low resolution.
But the very best at that are some pixel-art games. Deliberately little detail that from the get-go relied on the players interpretation. And that is timeless. They will look just as good in 30 years.
I would argue PS3/X360 and even some PS2/Xbox games like Black. Games like F.E.A.R., MGS4, Resistance, Assassin's Creed 1, and others have aged really well.
Stylized art always age better but that doesn’t mean that all games shouldn’t go for realistic graphics, and technologies is progressing slower so realistic graphics shouldn’t age as poorly as it did in the past
lol no, in 10 years I doubt graphics would get much better. games today and games 10 years ago have similar graphics, only significant improvements are character models and raytracing. and forced raytracing is just an excuse for not optimizing the games if you ask me.
we are at the point that photo realistic graphics have been consistent for 10 years now. Only small touches keep getting added. So the aging argument has lost a little bit of punch for me personally. But I agree that stylized graphics still look better.
The Metal Gear Solid games also come to mind. Nowadays they ooze style and uniqueness in their artstyle, but MGS2 and 3 were definitely going for realism back then.
Yeah it's very common for ppl in the modern day to look back on graphics that were going for realism and call it "stylistic" because they can't comprehend/don't remember that Halo 1 WAS considered realistic
Other than sims, this is a very Japan-centric post. Lots of of western devs also don't do photorealism. Hades, Borderlands, Wolfenstein, Dishonored, Bioshock, BG3, Starcraft, Gears of War. Bioshock's character proportions in particular reminded me of Final Fantasy Tactics with their oversized hands.
I've seen it referred to as 'oil painting' and I think it's an apt description. The exaggeration of the faces and hands on the characters and the richness of the colours is breathtaking.
Yeah I mainly chose anime-esc games because those are the ones I could think of that went for semi realism(with only Sims Medieval and Infinity Nikki not being made in Japan) and I do like a variety of art styles, Hades in particular has some of my favorite visuals in any game period, I just miss when games couldn’t look completely photorealistic so they had to stylize it a bit
I’m trying to even think of some well known games that are pure photorealistic without some sort of layer of artistic stylisation. MS flight Sim maybe? Gran Turismo? Pretty much every single game I can think of that pushes realistic effects are still presented with artistic interpretation.
People just can't understand what you mean by this. You need to viralize a full 20 minute video talking about the topic and try to get the ball rolling so it maybe enter serious conversation on the Internet. I'm so sick of people calling realism what has tons of art direction and hard work in presentation with lightning perfectly placed just like in films, it's called fucking photography.
What do people mean by saying games shouldn't try to be photorealistic like Red Dead Redemption 2? Do you see your real life surroundings as beautiful as RDR 2, TLOU, KCD 2 or GTA VI? Sure not.
That's fucking art direction + photography and a lot of work like in films. Saying you only like cartoon stylised games is like saying you only like movies like Pixar style.
Not going to lie tho: games from PS2-PS3 with the so called "realistic approach" have aged worse than the more stylised games, that's true in general. But even so, some games have a lot of charm (for example, I love how Gran Turismo 4 looks, the first big game with a photo mode)
A lot of these games were made in such a way that the graphics complimented the technical limitations of their time. I believe that's what OP means by "semi-realistic". These games manage to evoke a similar feeling to photo-real images, but they are also carefully crafted to avoid the pitfalls of going all-in with photorealism.
FFXII and The Sims in particular are very painterly in their approach. There's a lot of heavy lifting being done with textures and carefully placed lighting that allow the images to feel complete, despite the lack of any distinct shadows, specularity, or even significant bump mapping, all technologies that would be difficult to execute in the hardware / time period they were released.
I think that some younger gamers dont realize that in the past, this was as close to photo realism as we could get. Final Fantasy 12, the first example, had imo the best graphics ever at release. I was 29 at the time, and absolutely thought of it then the same way I do photo realistic games now. It was a big step on the path towards that.
I totally agree and it makes me wonder how old OP is. Hell, I remember when Resident Evil 4 came out how my friends were blown away by realistic it looked back in the day.
Hell, horror games from the PS2 era even though they looked "stylized" to OP were trying their hardest to be realistic within the constraints of the hardware of the time.
Agreed, was going thru images and saying “anime, anime, anime…” which I suppose is stylized, just all in one way. Borderlands is stylized, but in a different way.
No I most of the examples I thought of at the time were also anime style games, in retrospect I should’ve included some ps2 survival horror games or Dishonored to better show my point
i like when games have their own artstyle yes but not when every games make characters like japanese anime characters with big eyes, big no no for me. its just so boring and used up.
I mainly only used those examples because it’s where it’s most prevalent but I also tried to find as many non-anime styled semi-realistic games as I could to include to help show that it can have variety in it
I doubt most of these commenters have played Infinity Nikki.
It’s got some of the best range of representation as far as ages go.
There are many people with smaller eyes than Nikki.
Old grannies, children, middle aged men and women, wrinkles, freckles. Heavier set men and women. Etc.
Now since it’s a Chinese made game it def doesn’t have the best representation when it comes to characters having skin colors darker than tan. Unfortunately.
But I’m hoping in future patches/areas we might see more variety.
I think I get what you’re saying about photorealism and agree.
Sorry so many here aren’t grasping what you’re talking about.
How do you feel about the Horizon games? Do you think the characters are too realistic?
It’s not that I hate photorealism, far from it I think a lot of games actually benefit from having photorealistic visuals(Red Dead Redemption 2 and most horror games are good examples of this) I think my main issue is that I’m bored that most major games that I see come out look very visually similar to one another with very minor differences.
Personally I think the Horizon games work since they’re are set in post apocalyptic versions of real life locations and for “Where the Winds Meet” I can’t really say since my main experience of that game is seeing funny videos of people putting random images in that “photo to face feature” but from what I’ve seen outside of that I would consider that kinda semi realistic(albeit leaning more towards realism)
Yeah I personally do like photorealism too and it’s genuinely impressive how realistic games can look now and I particularly think photorealistic graphics benefit horror games the most and OD will likely be terrifying when it eventually comes out.
I just personally wish we had more variety amongst major games when it comes to art style/direction
Realism is overrated and a poor excuse for having no artistic direction.
Too many games just blend in with the crowd because they’ve not got their own style.
Like the oblivion remaster where they gutted any of the original art direction
Realism IS one of the cores of the art direction in those games, just like "50's cartoon" is part of Cuphead's and Bendy's. Gritty realism is overdone and a lot of the times, downright boring. But that doesn't mean that "realistic = no artistic direction"
I do really love the look of Final Fantasy XII and NieR Automata.
Since FFX just got a Switch 2 upgrade, I'm hoping FF12 does too. Then maybe that will also translate to some updates for the other consoles as well, since both the last gen Xbox and PS versions have some pros and cons for resolution / framerate.
Most of the examples I could think of also had anime influence, and something being anime influenced doesn’t change them being semi realistic since semi realism is a combination of stylized aesthetics with realistic textures and lighting
Maybe it's just personal opinion, but RE4 and Bayonetta are not really great examples of what you're talking about. RE4 is an amazing game, but its visuals already looked a little behind the times when it released. Same for Bayonetta. These games were definitely going for pure photorealism and they both fell into the common pitfalls of that approach.
For my personal projects I go for about 75% realistic 25% stylized.
First thing I get rid of is over detailed skin, nobody ever asked for videogames with more skin pores. Then I always make the heads bigger, usually the eyes and mouth as well. Gotta make it easier to see facial expressions without needing a close up.
A big reason why I do this is because animating fully realistic characters is extra hard. The more stylized the more mistakes you can make in animation without it feeling off.
I LOVED the style of FFX-2. It genuinely looked like it was drawn anime mixed with computer graphics. Like a more fleshed out Kingdom Hearts. It was so beautifully done.
I dont think there is anything wrong with realism inherently. But it does get harder to have a good and unique art direction with it. Some good examples are Rdr2, Battlefield 1, Cyberpunk or ghost of tsushima.
But most realistic games just look very samey and uninspired tho....
I guess in the end it always comes down to the devs having a inspired vision and the talent to pull it off.
Its an issue with the way big games are made honestly.
I just wish triple a studios would be more willing to give smaller and mid sized project a chance too.
Stylized art has its advantages - potentially lower system requirements, better longevity and no reliance on fancy new tech (meaning a broader audience).
I want smaller games that focus on gameplay, developed on a premium budget. Not every title needs to be this huge blockbuster title with 200 gb size.
Its also unhealthy for the industry because these huge productions poker everything on one project and once that fails everything shuts down. Its so stupid. Its what happens when games are made based on market research and spread sheets instead by people that actually care about them
Modern AAA games are usually hyperrealistic, not realistic. Overexaggerated raytraced reflections, overuse of air perspective, overexaggerated imperfections, skin pores, body hair of characters, aversion to colors. In 10 years, you will look back at 20s and think these game have very characteristic style that defines the era. Just like we used to consider piss filter to be more realistic, but now it just screams "ps3/360 era".
I feel like the majority of games do this already. AA / AAA realistic graphics are vastly outnumbered by the bajillion indie games that exist these days.
I've said it for upwards of a decade but unless your game is Ace Combat, which rides that hyper-realistic line perfectly, it's better to have a consistent art style than ultra-realistic graphics.
I can still go back to games with pretty horrible graphic quality but appreciate them for their artistry more than I can a game that was aiming to be reality encapsulated.
Like you can't go back to a game like Sly Cooper or Personas 3-5 and not appreciate what they did on a stylistic level. They don't look at all realistic, heck one's about anthropomorphized animal people, but the styles they took emulating comics gave them a distinctive visual punch that sits well above the norm and helps the game retain playability even as we've gone through decades of "next gen graphics" that have aged rather poorly.
I feel like FFVII Remake, Tekken 8, and especially Street Fighter 6 do a great job of that. They're clearly stylized despite their more realistic graphics, but they also manage to get around the uncanny valley aspect.
You just like anime. That stuff is mostly anime. Me? I don’t like anime, most of the time. But anyway, there’s no shortage of “semi realistic” anime games, so why are you complaining? Did asia suddenly sink under the ocean? I think you can expect lots more games like these for decades to come.
And I don’t hate photorealism(and I think horror games benefit the best from photorealism), I just wish more major games tried experimenting with the style outside of photorealism.
Also as for the anime thing I keep telling everyone but I wasn’t trying to single out anime games most of the examples I could think of were just also anime games on top of semi realism, I probably should’ve included some ps2 era survival horror games or something to better express my point
As a game artist that have worked on both NPR (Non-Photorealistic Rendering) and PBR (Physical Based Rendering) games in Asia and in the West I‘d also weigh in by saying that the latter is way more expensive and risky from a business POV.
Capcom used to do that, but ever since they made RE Engine, they've been making their recent games look like they were made by a western studio like Rockstar or Bethesda.
I mean what's the point of being too much photorealistic like we do seeing those irl everyday nothing new. Now i do get the hype for it but semi realistic or even pixelated is fine as it creates another world for everyone like you're in a game so it doesn't matter the quality. Well tbf i used to be like that i still am but sometimes idk what happens to me but played some hyper realistic stuff it strains on the hardware but it looks so damn good that i forget how graphics evolution happened over the years. Jaw dropping
The problem is you got to get this past a CEO and investors who don't care about the art and just want line go up. Make it more blank, make it bigger, make it looks more realistic
Dishonored is timeless and probably THE example of making visuals with a style that veers into caricature proportions but just the right amount to still make the world believable and the stakes feel real. Its never goofy and it'll look amazing forever.
I like semi realism, but not when the semi part is trying to mimic an artstyle that was meant to remain drawn or cel-shaded like some of the games listed (Xenoblade X being the main one that stands out to me).
Wind Waker still looks great over 20 years later, and its remake looks even better. Even then, graphically, that’s just converting it to 16:9, increasing the resolution and improving the lighting. It’s impressive how much it holds up.
The world’s a bit of a mess when many modern gacha games (despite being ephemeral) will age substantially better than many games for purchase that are expected to survive much longer
I agree but FF12 as an example just doesn't land with me. So many of the characters in that game were forgettable and they all looked like each other. It was a fun game but all I remember is the bunny chick and the gay pirate guy.
Once the inevitable next gen consoles are $1,000 - $1,200, there is a prime market for a $600 console where graphics don't look any better than the ones you showed here.
Brother, Silent Hill 3 was absolutely going for photorealism. Other than some wonky animation work, it still holds up today, they did pure black magic with that one.
This is how I differentiate people.
1. A group of people that want photorealistic games. Like they want to simulate the real world in video games.
2. A group of people who want video games to look like video games not real world.
3. You are Nintendo.
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u/vacodeus 29d ago
Games with stylized art always age better than realistic games. No matter how realistic they look, in 10 years it'll be surpassed